The present invention is related to digital certificates, and more particularly to a streamlined enrollment process for purchasing multiple digital certificates.
The security of transactions and e-commerce conducted via the Internet remains a primary concern. To be a viable alternative to traditional transactions, online transactions and connections need to be secure. A public key infrastructure is a known technique for achieving such security. In accordance with this technique, each party is assigned a public key and a private key. The public key is placed in a digital certificate and configured using a cryptographic algorithm, such as the well-known Rivest-Shamir-Alderman (RSA) algorithm, to authenticate its owner. A third party, commonly referred to as a certificate authority (CA), is often used to verify the identity of the owner of a public key pair.
A purchaser wishing to purchase a digital certificate from a CA completes a number of steps during an enrollment process. The purchaser is often asked to provide contact information (e.g., name, title, phone number, address) for three entities, namely a technical contact, a corporate contact and billing contact. The technical contact identifies the person who will install the certificate. The corporate contact identifies the person who must approve of the issuance of the certificate. The billing contact identifies the person who is responsible for payment. The form of payment and the relevant details must also be provided. The purchaser must also submit a certificate signing request (CSR) and indicate the vendor of web server software with which the certificate will be used. Other information may also be needed. A need continues to exist for simplifying the enrollment process for purchasing multiple certificates each keyed to a different cryptographic algorithm.